


When The Wind Changes

by MadasaMoriarty



Category: Doctor Who, Mary Poppins (Movies)
Genre: Canon - Movie, Crossover, Fake Science, Gen, Implied Relationships, London, Magic and Science, Prompt Fic, Tags Are Hard, Work In Progress, but not really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2020-09-07 05:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20304361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadasaMoriarty/pseuds/MadasaMoriarty
Summary: The Doctor and Clara answer a mauve alert. And meet someone the Doctor hasn't seen since the wind changed.





	1. Chapter 1

“All you can eat jello.” 

“Yes Clara.” 

“Unending jello, you said.” 

“Yes Clara.” 

“More than I could ever eat.” 

“Yes Clara.” 

“I’d get sick you said.” 

“You did!” 

“From  _ eating jello,  _ sick from eating jello Doctor! I don’t know about you but I didn’t eat any jello!” 

“None?” 

“No!” 

“I’m pretty sure the high priest got a bit of himself in my mouth during the farewell ceremony.” Clara gagged somewhere behind him. “Well, how was I supposed to know the jello would evolve into a sentient species?!” 

“You’re a time lord!” 

“I can’t know everything Clara!” 

“You could’ve glanced at a guide book!” 

“Oh, what is it with you humans and guidebooks? Take the mystery out of everything, why don’t you?” 

“When it comes to sentient food, I wouldn’t really mind.” She sighed. “I’ll never be able to look at trifle the same way again.” 

The Doctor stopped his forward slog as the Tardis came into view, sedately parked between a pair of thickly vined trees. He turned baleful eyes on his companion as bits of the high priest’s vaguely strawberry scented mucus dripped from his hair. 

“Yes, alright Clara, you’ve made your point. No more food based planets- got it.” 

She gave him a sparkling smile and skipped past him to wiggle the Tardis doors open. 

“I get dibs on the bath.” 

“It’s a transdimensional time-ship! There’s more than one bath!” 

“Yeah, but I get the good one.” She shot him a cheeky look and froze with one foot over the door jamb. “Woah.” The Doctor stiffened behind her the beginnings of his answering smile fracturing on his face. Red light spilled from the Tardis’ open doors, staining everything it touched a more macabre hue. “Doctor?” 

Moving Clara gently aside the Doctor entered his ship, his companion half a step behind him. He took in the gently strobing lights and the more urgent glare that beamed from the monitor. Gallifreyan calligraphy dancing across it in swirls. 

“What is it?” Clara asked, pressed comfortably close behind him. 

“Mauve.” The Doctor mumbled, ignoring the way it made something inside him catch. 

“What’s that mean?” 

“Uh…” The Doctor blinked, hands twitching at his sides, squeezed his eyes shut against the colour and pressed his palms against his head. “It's a...warning. A- a- distress call. A message!” he lowered his hands and his voice. “Mauve and dangerous.” he barely dared to breathe it, inching closer to the console. 

“Whose sending it?” 

“I don’t know.” The words came out too sharp, but he didn’t know how to take them back. 

“It doesn’t say?” Clara’s voice was unbearably gentle. “Can’t be much help if we don’t know who's asking.” 

“There are coordinates.” He gestured vaguely at something Clara couldn’t read, his attention never leaving the main text, his fingers coming up to trace it slowly. 

“Coordinates to where?” 

“England. London. Turn of the nineteenth century.” there was silence except for the thrumming of the ship. 

“You’re getting a distress signal from eighteenth century London?” 

“Nineteenth century, technically, and yes. Yes I am.” the silence returned, neither of them doing anything to break it. The Doctor was rereading ancient circular script, his gaze going around and around. Clara was reading the Doctor, following the tight line of his shoulders and making note of the way his right hand trembled.

“Doctor?” Clara raised her own hand in a steadying gesture as the Doctor jumped, jerked, his focus never managing to leave the screen. Not sure if she truly had his attention Clara pressed on. “We gonna help them?” 

The Doctor hesitated, his fingers hovering above the console. He reread the message one more time. 

_ HELP IS REQUESTED FROM THE DOCTOR, POST HASTE _

_ EXTREMELY URGENT-- M.P.  _

\---

The message could only come from a time lord. It had been written in Gallifreyan. The time-space coordinates had been distinct. They’d sent it to his Tardis  _ directly.  _ They’d asked for  _ him, specifically.  _ This wasn’t a random radio transmission the Tardis had nabbed out of the aether. This was a missive. Signed and delivered. But signed by who? 

It could only come from a time lord. But that was impossible. The time lords were dead. He knew that. He’d gotten his hopes up once and the ensuing turmoil had nearly cost him the Ponds. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. He wasn’t going to risk Clara. So not a time lord. No. Someone else. Some _ thing  _ else, perhaps. 

“M.P., M.P.” he chewed on the letters as he darted, heavy footed around the console, easing the Tardis through the vortex on the tail of coordinates that had been too easy to follow. Coordinates sent by a time lord, except that was impossible. Jello themed goo clung to the levers as he pulled them and dripped forlornly into the buttons, the Doctor spared a moment to wish he could’ve had a bath like the one Clara was currently enjoying, but this felt too important. Far, far too important. So he would suffer being sticky for a moment longer. 

When the Tardis was comfortably in flight he pulled the monitor firmly back into his sightline, calling the message onto the screen. 

“M.P.- Marigold princess, no, maverick...porpoise. That’s rubbish. M.P., M.P...M, M-mmm..mmelody. Melody. Melody P. Melody Pond.” for half a second he smiled, than his face caved into a frown. “Melody Pond?” he barked the words like a demand, giving his ship an accusing look. “Melody Po- is this River?” The Tardis gave her equivalent of a shrug and the Doctor stewed. 

It couldn’t be River. River was almost as impossible an option as the time lords. And the message didn’t fit her style at all. The Doctor grumbled and pushed a few superfluous buttons. It could be someone attempting to  _ imitate  _ River. But it was a poor imitation at best. Growling in frustration the Doctor gave the monitor a hearty wack, as if that would provide some clarification. It didn’t. It just made his hand hurt. 

“M.P, MP, MP, MP M...P.” he stared at the signature, the carefully input initials. It was impossible, of course, everything felt impossible today. It was twice as impossible as River. She was a time lord- lady, for one thing. And she’d been dead as long as any of the other time lords. Ladies. But he hadn’t thought of her in so long… had kept her carefully locked away with the rest of his family, with Rose and Susan and a young boy called Koschei, that for a moment, just a moment, he indulged. 

He wasn’t sure what to do with the feeling that gentled through him. Wasn’t sure if it was pleasant or painful, or some cruel mix of neither. It was almost like nostalgia, except it hurt more sharply. The Doctor chuckled in a way that was not humorous. 

“Oh, Mar-” 

“Okay, so.” Clara chirped as she climbed the ramp, her hair in dripping tangles. “Bathing in a moving Tardis, not the easiest thing in the world.” she studied him. Worry badly concealed. “We there yet?” 

The Doctor shook away his strange melancholy, forcing a smile for his companion that did nothing to appease either of them. 

“Nearly. Just waiting for you to be decent.” 

“A gentleman.” Clara smiled in return. The Tardis began it’s materialization. “Any idea what’ll be waiting for us when we land?” 

“No.” the Doctor denied, thinking of River and time lords and a wife he hadn’t seen since his planet burned. “No idea.” 

“So.” The Doctor barked, whirling around the room and reapplying the armor he’d lost while Clara had been in the bath. “Nineteenth century- bit dark, not my favorite century, if I’m honest. Two world wars, a Great Depression- how sad is that? A great depression. Normal depressions bad enough and they go and make it ‘great’.” 

“You’re not the only one who didn’t like it Doctor, you gonna wash up? You’ve got a bit of jello...everywhere.” Clara swiped at the offending substance, but it just smeared wetly and stuck to her fingers. 

“No time. Mauve and dangerous. Come on Clara.” with more bravado than he was actually feeling, and wishing he was wearing something that didn’t chafe quite so much, the Doctor strode into London. 

\----------


	2. Meeting Mary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Clara arrive in London. And have their measures taken.

“Well you certainly took your time.” 

Clara doesn’t recognize the voice, but it makes the Doctor freeze stiff and she barely manages to avoid running into his back. Whoever’s speaking sighs daintily. 

“Another face already Doctor? You really are too careless, you know. But I suppose it can’t be helped now. Let me look at you.” 

The Doctor gurgles something unintelligible and Clara finally takes the time to peer around him. There is a woman regarding them with an expression that is almost severe, except her face is too pretty and her manner too polite to let it go that far. She wears a hat with a flower in the brim, a simple dress that seems slightly too modern for the time period and there is an umbrella with a carefully carved parrot’s head hooked over her arm. Clara can’t help but feel she’s seen her before. She studies the Doctor for a long time, expression never relenting. 

“You’re younger than you were last, and filthy, but you’ll do.” She smiled and it made her eyes glow. “Do close your mouth Doctor, we are not a codfish.” the time lord’s teeth clicked together painfully. 

“Do I know you?” Clara couldn’t help but ask, startling the Doctor and turning the woman’s sharp look on herself. She hummed thoughtfully. 

“It’s possible, but I’m afraid I’ve never made an introduction. Mary Poppins, a pleasure.” Clara did her own impression of a codfish. It made the woman’s eyebrows pinch. “And you are?” she prompted. 

“Gonna be really upset if I’m dreaming.” Clara could feel the awe on her face. “ _ You’re Mary Poppins? _ ” 

“I am. And you are?” 

Clara laughed helplessly. Mary Poppins was beginning to look frustrated. 

“Sorry, it’s just- I-you-” Swallowing another mad giggle Clara stuck out her hand. “Clara Oswald, sorry, big fan.” the giggle escaped in a rush and Clara clapped a mortified hand to her mouth. Mary Poppins frowned at her. 

“How do you do. I must say Doctor, your companions are usually much more level headed.” Both women looked to the Doctor, Clara blushing painfully. The Doctor continued to stare as if struck. “Honestly.” Mary huffed. “I can’t think what has you acting like this- did you finally get tired of hearing yourself speak?” She tsked and began rummaging in the small coin purse Clara hadn’t taken much notice of earlier, her hand disappearing to an alarming depth. 

“He’s usually much chattier.” Clara offered, twisting her fingers. 

“Something I can believe only too easily.” Mary answered before focusing her attention more keenly on her bigger on the inside bag. Clara bit her lip, the Doctor looked as if somebody had yanked the world out from under him and she had a sneaking suspicion as to  _ why. _

“Are you a time lord?” 

“Time lady.” Mary Poppins corrected, resurfacing from her purse. She had a small tape measure clutched in her fist and Clara very firmly didn’t let herself gape. “Now than.” The time lady snapped, standing almost to attention. “Come here Doctor, and let me get the measure of you.” 

“You’re gonna do the thing.” Clara could feel her giggles returning. The Doctor shuffled forward, mouth once again hanging open. Mary Poppins reached up and pressed it closed, looking indulgent. 

“ _ Mary. _ ” the Doctor breathed, touching reverent fingers to her waist. 

“Hello Doctor.” She took a moment to smile at him and Clara was beginning to feel like she’d missed something. “Something tells me you’ve been neglecting your visits. What do you have that old time ship for if you aren’t going to use her to keep in touch?” 

“I’ve been busy.” The words came out like a prayer. Mary Poppins hummed again, more reproachfully and unfurled her tape measure. 

“Let’s see you then.” She had to stretch on her toes to put the tape above the Doctor’s head, pinching it off and bringing it back to eye level again with neat precision. Clara laughed. Both time people looked at her blankly. 

“Go on than.” the Doctor pressed, and it was obvious he was scrabbling for firmer ground. “What’s it say?” 

“The Doctor- emotionally unstable, rather prone to outbursts.” She levelled a look at him. “No great surprises there.” 

“Emotionally unstable?” the Doctor scoffed, sounding much more even keeled. He was ignored. 

“Now you Miss Oswald, spitspot.” She stretched out a hand and Clara went to it like a moth, fidgeting nervously and throwing smiles in every direction. “Stand up straight.” 

She felt cloth pressed into her spine. Mary Poppins made a small sound and the Doctor started laughing. Clara whirled on them, face once again burning. 

“What’s it say?” Clara demanded as the time lady gave her counterpart a reproving look. The Doctor plucked the length of cord from Mary’s hands, reading it off proudly. 

“Rather prone to giggle, doesn’t do as she’s told.” He started guffawing again, the haunted look nearly gone from his eyes completely. Clara slapped at him half-heartedly. 

“If you’re quite finished.” Mary Poppins arched a brow. “I did call you here for a reason Doctor.” 

“You’re the one with the-” He stretched his arms out in imitation of measurement, the actual tape measure swinging wildly. Mary Poppins shot him a sweetly quelling look. “Right. Mauve alert. What’d you need Mary?” 

“Thank you. I-” 

“Hang on.” Clara interrupted, ignoring Mary Poppins’ scandalized look and the way her cheeks seemed to permanently burn. “What about you? How do you ‘measure up’?” She did air quotes, unable to resist a cheeky grin, her heart beating with excitement. 

“Very well.” Mary Poppins allowed with an air of resignation that suggested this happened a lot. “If you would be so kind Doctor.” 

The Doctor sketched a sloppy salute and fumbled the tape measure into place. Mary Poppins took it from him, keeping careful hold of the relevant inch and offered it towards Clara. Scarcely able to breathe and nearly quaking with anticipation she took it. And could not stop herself from laughing out loud before she read:

“ ** _Mary Poppins, practically perfect, in every way.” _ **

The Doctor mouthed the words with her. 

“She programmed it to say that.” he grumbled good naturedly and it was Mary’s turn to blush. 

“If that’s quite taken care of.” She turned like an army general, tucking her umbrella up under her arm. She didn’t deny the Doctor’s claim. “This way Doctor, Miss Oswald. Come along please.” 

They fell into step behind her, Clara holding the Doctor back when he would have flounced ahead. 

“You alright?” She kept her voice pitched low, watching his face carefully. 

“Yeah.” He agreed quickly, and it seemed true. If only just. “Course. Always.” He smacked a kiss to her forehead and hurried their pace. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I am having trouble with the tenses in this story... so.   
Let me know what you think. I'm not sure my Mary is up to par. But I did my best.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo..... I was prompted to write a MP/DW crossover four years ago by someone over on ffnet. And now I am finally getting around to it. The work is still in progress but I need feedback. Encouragement. Inspiration. I have a large portion already written. I've just managed to hit a stall. Because that is how I roll. Let me know if the characters seem OOC or if there is anything you think I've done wrong/poorly. But be gently about it please. I'm delicate. Also, while I was writing 11, 10 kept trying to get a word in... so... if the Doctor sounds like he should be wearing pinstripes, that is why.


End file.
